Journey through the darkness
Austin-based indie rock group Holy Wave have just released their sixth LP Five Of Cups. This new album is a psychedelic, detailed and weighty 41-minute dreamlike musical experience with a consistent sound and cohesive theme.
The first track on the album, “Five of Cups,” sets the tone for the rest of the LP. It opens with a long eerie synth tone which continues to play for the duration of the song while a slow guitar and drums play. The lyrics describe someone down on their luck, having gone from “a giant of the scene” to “the rat just scurrying by.”
“Bog Song” follows with a similar sound, using echoey guitars and soft percussions mixed with distorted and echoing vocals that compares eyes of wild animals in the dark to distant stars in the night sky.
Next comes “Chaparral,” opening with a droning guitar, the same quiet slow guitar and drum sound from the previous songs. The echoey vocals reminisce on the past of youth and encourage the listener to revisit some old passions: “Old can be new.”
“Path of Least Resistance” offers a slightly more energetic variation of the fuzzy tunes from previous songs as guitars strum and unique instruments sound in the background as the lyrics bemoan the speed at which life can pass by.
“Nothing is Real” opens with clicking footsteps which set the beat for the rest of the song, carried onward by echoey, plucky guitars and distorted synths. The similarly distorted vocals describe trippy images of “The world is falling into a hole” and “we walk straight into the trees” while “Only hearing high notes of a lyre.”
A steadily marching drumbeat sets the stage for “Hypervigilance” as the album’s signature distorted guitars kick in while the vocals sing equally trippy lyrics about how everything seems to “come and find me” but that the singer’s “secret power” is that “I can see through your shit.”
“The Darkest Timeline (feat. Lorelle Meets The Obsolete)” begins with a groovy drumbeat before mixing in with echoed clacks, a slow plucky guitar and trippy synth beats. The song’s lyrics paint a distorted image of “Sad woods melting down,” “Noisy water” and “Clearing the air while breathing in,” before repeating “We are so over.”
An energetic guitar and drum duo with a background synth tone open “Nothing in the Dark” before echoey vocals kick in. The lyrics seem to depict an emergence from a dark period in life. There is “Nothing in the dark / To fear / When the shadows disappear” and “Future doesn’t seem / So / Clear / Now that the morning is here.”
“Happier (feat. Estrella del Sol)” brings the album to a close with an upbeat guitar and drum tune, but its happy sound is betrayed by other elements of the song. In addition to the static noise in the background occasionally growing out of control and overtaking the beat periodically, the lyrics seem obsessed with happiness, saying “When I’m depressed / I take a pill and now I’m happier” and “if it will make my life happier / And so it goes.” It is seemingly willing to do anything to stack on happiness without addressing underlying causes.
Five Of Cups depicts a journey through a dark time in life, addressing a number of ways in which people attempt to escape the darkness, or simply wrap themselves up in it. Holy Wave’s distorted album captures the real feelings of hitting the lows in life and struggling to climb out.
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